Yoga Instructor Lisa Wildermuth has been practicing yoga for 25 years and teaching at California Lutheran University for 12 years. However, yoga was something that Wildermuth said she was not into at first.
“I thought I’d give it a try because it just seemed like a different kind of a workout that could be good for your body…and I started doing it and I really, I thought, ‘Hmm this is kind of weird’, I really wasn’t into it so much,” Wildermuth said.
According to Wildermuth, she made a commitment to herself to go to four classes before she stopped and tried something else. By the fourth class, she said, she liked the way her body and mind felt afterward.
“I felt more lighter, springier, like all throughout my body the energy level was just kind of, just felt more an equilibrium,” Wildermuth said. “That’s what kind of got me hooked and I kept going back and doing yoga then on a real regular basis.”
Before becoming a yoga instructor, Wildermuth said she worked at hospitals, but said she took time off from work when she had her third child. When her children were getting to an age where it allowed her to go back to work, however, Wildermuth said yoga was something she liked doing and could fit teaching it into her schedule.
Prior to joining Cal Lutheran, Wildermuth was a yoga instructor at Pepperdine University. She said she spoke with the Cal Lutheran fitness center director at the time, who informed her that they were hiring a new yoga instructor.
“It just was really the most fortuitous timing,” Wildermuth said.
Wildermuth said she has always been involved in sports and likes to exercise regularly, and said she encourages everyone to come to her yoga class.
“Anyone can do it regardless of like if they’re experts or just beginners,” Sarah Deanda, a student at Cal Lutheran, said. “It’s just really welcoming and relaxing.”
Wildermuth said she recommends starting by making a small commitment, as she did herself. It can be overwhelming not knowing the terms or the poses, according to Wildermuth, but she said that it comes really quickly the more you attend classes.
“My advice would be to be patient, and to be open and receptive to it,” Wildermuth said. “To really kind of pay attention to how you felt going into the class, and then how you felt coming out of the class, and see if there’s a difference for the better. Usually, there is.”
Communication Professor Dru Pagliassotti said Wildermuth’s classes are fantastic and has been attending them since 2016.
“It’s just nice to be able to come and do some relaxation and just sort of get my mind out of the whole teaching mindset,” Pagliassotti said.
Pagliassotti said they have tried yoga classes at different places, including India and Costa Rica, but “Lisa is the instructor I’m going to all the time.”
Cal Lutheran student Kira Erikson said she likes going to Wildermuth’s yoga classes because it is not a competitive environment. According to Erikson and another student, Marie Bell, Wildermuth’s classes have helped them destress from their academic and personal life.
Wildermuth said she feels like the classes also open up opportunities for students to connect with each other, and said she likes to build a relationship with those who attend her classes to see how they grow and develop.
Erikson, Bell, and Deanda said they recommend the class to all students since it is a judgment-free zone where anyone can relax.
Wildermuth’s yoga classes are held weekly on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 5-6 p.m. at the Gilbert Sports and Fitness Center.
